With the onset of summer came social gathering, local festival commitments, summer class and extra work hours. Venite Missa Est! took a break and never came back!

I also have a bug on my computer that breezed right by my anti-virusware like it was standing still. I had comments enabled for this blog and was receiving alot of spam with Chinese (I assume) characters through the comments. After that it was nothing but trouble in the web browsers and I could not even log onto Venite.

I have read many comments in forums about people getting bugs from Blogger. That does not make me happy!

Also, the propers for mass (link) are not loaded in Venite. Google changed their website, Pages, which housed my propers, and I have not had time to rebuild them. So little time!.....

...and, quite frankly, I kind of lost a little hope with the absence of a pastor, the lack of interest by the diocese and (new) people in general for the Latin Mass and this blog as well.

But we are back up and running and with your help (write me an article or submit someting of interest won't you?) perhaps we can all make it work and build on upon this blog.

Peace be upon you......

...and now the Necessaries

Please note: St. Anthony Catholic Church is one of two local churches celebrating the Traditional Latin Mass (EFLR) in the Wichita area. Though this blog is loosely centered around this parish and it's members, Venite Missa Est! is by no means, in any way an official voice of, or for, St. Anthony Parish or the Diocese of Wichita. Venite Missa Est! is strictly a private layman's endeavor.

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Upcoming Programs of Interest on EWTN

Submitted by Larry Bethel

I thought you might be interested on a couple of shows coming up on EWTN.

One of our fellow pew sitters Stephanie Mann will be on Bookmark with Doug Keck next week on 8/29 at 8:30 A.M. which is also our Mass time so set your recorder or it will be shown at various times throughout that week. Stephanie will be talking with Mr Keck about her book, Supremacy and Survival.

Here is the website for Bookmark with more info on Stephanie's show, http://www.ewtn.com/bookmark/

Also, the Monks at Clear Creek Abbey are featured at several showings this week on a show called Living the Liturgy: Clear Creek Monastery. Times , as best I can tell, are Wed, Aug 25 at 12 noon and Sat Aug 28 at 1 P.M.
The Monks also have the DVD for sale.

U.S. Catholics no longer have to travel to Europe to discover what life is like behind the turreted walls of the medieval French abbey, Notre Dame de Fontgombault, and other Benedictine monasteries. In 1999, an almost unbelievable chain of events brought a group of Benedictines from France to Oklahoma! There, they founded the Clear Creek Monastery, which is still under construction even as the community continues to grow.

How did a monastery, where life is lived much like it was in the Middle Ages, make its way to the United States? The chain of events began at the non-Catholic Kansas University, where a group of mostly non-Catholic students were taking a class on Western civilization. They were surprised to learn how Catholicism shaped our culture.

“It was not the intention of the professors, but lots of students converted,” says EWTN Producer David Biddle. “They traveled to Europe to see the monasteries, to see how the culture was formed. They fell in love with these monasteries. Some became monks. They said, ‘A beautiful life is being lived here. We want to bring this to America.’”

It took 25 years, but in 1999, eight monks received permission to found a monastery in Oklahoma’s hinterlands. Most were returning Americans; a few were experienced French monks sent to help set up the foundation. Today, Clear Creek Monastery boasts 30 monks, with more men wanting to join every year.

Their way of life is not easy. Unlike many Benedictine communities, whose monks run parishes, schools or retreat centers, this is a cloistered community, far removed from any major town or city. The monks are contemplatives, which means they spend most of their day in silence. Each day is centered around the Liturgy of the Hours, which is prayed in Latin, and the Mass, which is prayed in the extraordinary form.

In this community, the monks fit work in between prayer, in accord with the traditional Benedictine motto, ora et labora,” meaning “pray and work.” Viewers will feel they are living the monastic life as they watch this documentary which is structured according to the hours of the Divine Office, with the monk’s lives interwoven throughout.

But be forewarned. After watching this documentary, you may very well want to spend some time in their world. Fortunately, you can. While the monks don’t run a retreat center, per se, the public is invited to pray with them and to stay in their guest houses.
“It’s a life just like it was lived in medieval times,” says Producer Biddle. “The monks are not running from society, but retreating so they can fight the spiritual battle. It’s a good example for us to see how the monks pray and live their lives dedicated to God…Theirs is a beautiful life lived for God.”

St. Anthony taking the backseat to the risen Christ
behind the curtain at Easter.
St. Anthony, Wichita, Ks.

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St Anthony's St Louis IX Statue

Only statue of a Saint-King in any of the Wichita area Churches

By Larry Bethel

St Anthony's may have the only statue of a Saint-King in any of the Wichita area Churches. In full regalia next to the St Joseph statue is St Louis IX, consecrated king of France in 1226 at the age of 11 who then reigned for 44 years. His mother queen Blanche, brought him up piously in the faith, and he liked to be called Louis of Poissy, the place of his baptism. He came of age in 1234 and married Margaret of Provence with whom he had 12 children. He lived a serious liturgical and prayerful life, beginning each day with the office of Prime and attending two masses a day in his chapel. In his chapel he introduced the practice of genuflecting at the words in the Creed: Et homo factus est and of bowing humbly at the passage in the Passion when Jesus expired. Both practices were adopted by the Church. He twice led crusades to retake Jerusalem. On the first one he had successes until he was captured by the Saracens and was ransomed and then spent 5 years in the areas of the Holy land helping Christians and rebuilding shrines. During this time he received from the Emperor of Constantinople the Crown of Thorns and a particle of the Cross which he later preserved at Saint Chapelle, which he built for the purpose.

Returning to France when his mother died he, for 15 years, assured the profitability and peace of France, where he was looked upon by all of Europe, including the Pope, Gregory IX as a great ruler. Perhaps even more telling is a quote from Joinville, a chronicler of medieval France, "Often, I have seen the good king, after Mass, go to the wood at Vincennes, sit down at the foot of an oak tree and there listen to all who had to speak to him." In 1270 he underwent another crusade but this time was foiled by an epidemic decimating his army and killing him. His son, Philip the Bold, brought his remains back to Paris where they were interred at the church of St Denis. During the French religious wars his body disappeared leaving only one index finger, still at the church. This is from the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1918:
"He was renowned for his charity. The peace and blessings of the realm come to us through the poor he would say. Beggars were fed from his table, he ate their leavings, washed their feet, ministered to the wants of the lepers, and daily fed over one hundred poor. He founded many hospitals and houses: the House of the Felles-Dieu for reformed prostitutes; the Quinze-Vingt for 300 blind men (1254), hospitals at Pontoise, Vernon, Compiégne."

The only consecrated king of France, St Louis, Mo, Louisville,Ky and Louisiana are all named after our saint, along with many other cities, churches and basilicas throughout the world.
St Louis' feast day is August 25. Here is the Secret from his Feast day Mass;
Grant, we beseech thee, O almighty God, that even as blessed Louis, Thy Confessor, spurning the delights of the world, sought to please Christ his King alone, so may his prayers render us acceptable to Thee. Through our Lord.

Evidently, we are blessed with the statue of St Louis IX for the reason he was a patron of the 3rd order of St Francis along with St Elizabeth of Hungary, the statue on the other side of the St Joseph statue. When the St Anthony parish was Franciscan, the St Louis and St Elizabeth statues were in the sanctuary above the arcs on each side of the altar. Today, next to St Joseph, St Louis is dressed in a purple cloak denoting royalty with a sword in one hand and in the other a jewel box which holds replicas of the crown of thorns and 2 nails from the true cross.

I want to thank the St Anthony Church historian, Camilla Hartman, who spent time with me telling about the statue's history as well as about the Saint himself.

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This blog is intended for Catholics who hold and practice the Catholic and Apostolic Faith, who love the Church, and who find especially inspiring the Extraordinary Form of the Latin Rite or, as more commonly referred to as, the Traditional Latin Mass. This blog is intended to foster a sense of community for those who share in the ancient faith and rite, in around the Diocese of Wichita.